The Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday, May 22 to approve a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Washtenaw Community College Education Association, the union representing its faculty.

The agreement will take effect on August 29, 2018 and continue through August 27, 2021.

As the Washtenaw Community College class of 2018 heads out to make its mark on the world, WCC Foundation Board of Directors chairman Jamie Buhr asked the recent graduates to first consider making a difference for current and future students at the college.

During his address at WCC’s 2018 Commencement Ceremony on May 19, Buhr asked graduates to consider donating $20.18 to the WCC Foundation’s Student Emergency Fund and announced he’s pulled together a group of local philanthropists who will match every donation.

Community college students regularly overcome obstacles and adversity to achieve their goals. That’s true at Washtenaw Community College, where approximately 75-percent of students attend part-time while working, one-third receive some form of financial aid, 10 percent are first-generation college students, and five percent are single parents.

College is a destination for most high school students today. Many local students take advantage of an option that helps them get a head start on their college degree: they enroll at WCC while still in high school. The College calls it dual enrollment.

The public is invited to attend an open house at WCC to celebrate the renovations and renaming of the College’s Occupational Education building on Sunday, Oct. 23. That afternoon it will be renamed the Larry L. Whitworth Occupational Education building in honor of WCC’s recently retired president.

Approximately 25 companies in technology-related businesses will be on hand at the Fall Technology Job Fair sponsored by WCC’s Career Planning and Employment Services department. The fair takes place on Tuesday, Oct. 18, from 10:00am to 2:00pm in the Morris Lawrence building. It’s free to all WCC students, alumni, and community members.

Journalists for WCC’s student newspaper, The Washtenaw Voice, recently received 29 awards in the annual Michigan Press Association Best Collegiate Newspaper Contest. The honors included the General Excellence Award for best overall student newspaper and first place for online newspaper.

From February through April 2011, WCC humanities instructor Elisabeth Thoburn traveled to the Middle East in search of history. With travel plans carefully arranged and finalized months ahead of time, Thoburn found herself in Cairo as protesters swarmed Tahrir Square and the Egyptian government toppled.